The Quiet Achiever, also known as the Holden Solar Trek, was the world's first practical long-distance solar-powered car powered entirely by

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

s. The project was promoted by adventurer

Hans Tholstrup Hans Jeppe Tholstrup (born 8 November 1944) is an Australian adventurer who was the first person to circumnavigate the Australian continent in an open power boat. Early life The seeds of Tholstrup's adventurous streak were planted by meeting ...

, with the Australian-made car developed by Larry Perkins and his brother Garry; and sponsored by BP. In December 1982, the car, driven by Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins, performed the first manned transcontinental journey using only solar power, traversing Australia from west to east.

Description

The Quiet Achiever was hand-built by Larry and Garry Perkins. The body skin was made of

fiberglass Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...

, while the skeleton framework was constructed of steel tubing, similar to what might be used in lightweight aircraft. The car had a large curved frontal window for the driver to see through, and side windows of clear fiberglass. The vehicle had a photovoltaic power system rated at 1 kilowatt, which powered it to an average speed of ."More Key Steps in Photovoltaic History"
Solar Energy – Green Lifestyle for You. 1 June 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2013. The car's roof-mounted solar array consisted of two rows of ten 36-cell solar panels that were joined together, giving a total roof area of around .

History

Development

Hans Thostrup initially had the idea of auto racing using solar energy because he was interested in conserving

non-renewable resource A non-renewable resource (also called a finite resource) is a natural resource that cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a pace quick enough to keep up with consumption. An example is carbon-based fossil fuels. The original organic ma ...

s. He and Larry Perkins were inspired by the Sunmobile, a solar-powered miniature car built by

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

which was publicly demonstrated in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, United States, in 1955. BP sponsored the Quiet Achiever project, which was labelled the BP Solar Trek.

Trans-Australia journey

In December 1982 and January 1983, Tholstrup, along with Perkins, drove the car across Australia from

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

to the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

, travelling over 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) in under 20 days. By contrast, the first gasoline/petrol powered car took 30 days to do the same trip. The Quiet Achiever's route was a 2,560-mile (4,130-km) west-to-east course which started on 19 December 1982 in Scarborough, a suburb of Perth, and finished in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

on 7 January 1983. The trek went through

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

near Perth before passing through Coolgardie,

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

, Cocklebiddy, Eucla, Ceduna,

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a seaport, it is now a road traffic and railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about north of the state c ...

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire unti ...

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It ...

Wilcannia Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th ce ...

Narromine Narromine ( /næroʊmaɪn/) is a rural Australian town located approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of Dubbo in the Orana region of New South Wales. The town is at the centre of Narromine Shire. The 2016 census recorded a population o ...

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Go ...

, Orange, Bathurst and Katoomba, eventually ending at the Sydney Opera House. During the journey, thousands of spectators, including the indigenous people of the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its ...

, gathered to watch the Quiet Achiever pass by. In addition, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) monitored the Quiet Achiever throughout its journey to ensure that only solar energy was used to power the vehicle. When the car arrived in Sydney, thousands gathered to watch it approach the Sydney Opera House. It completed a lap of the

Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama (Wahluu) and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race held each October, and the Bathurst 12 Hou ...

in 18 minutes 45 seconds. When the journey started at Scarborough Beach, a bottle of seawater from the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

was obtained. This water was carried across Australia, before finally being ceremoniously poured into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

at Sydney.

Influence after event

The success of the Quiet Achiever's trek led Tholstrup to found the annual

World Solar Challenge The World Solar Challenge (WSC), since 2013 named Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, is an international event for solar powered cars driving 3000 kilometres through the Australian outback. With the exception of a four-year gap between ...

, a solar-powered racing contest, in Australia in 1987. The World Solar Challenge is widely considered to be the world championship of solar car racing. The Quiet Achiever itself is now in the collection of the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

.BP Solar Trek vehicle known as 'The Quiet Achiever'

. Retrieved 21 July 2013.

References

External links

Pictures of the Quiet Achiever during its journey
Snooks Motorsport. {{DEFAULTSORT:Quiet Achiever, The Solar-powered vehicles 1982 in science 1982 in Australia